


Double Pain

by meido (orphan_account)



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-04-23
Updated: 2012-04-23
Packaged: 2017-11-04 04:23:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/389700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/meido
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Youmu's spell card malfunctions, and she goes to Reimu for help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Double Pain

Reimu looked over the sheathed sword. A heavy scowl hollowed her face. “So, you think it’s cursed?”

“No,” replied Youmu, shaking her head quickly. “It’s certainly not cursed. It’s just...” Her voice trailed off, stare trapped on the hilt.

“Just?”

“Something may be within it.” Reimu propped her chin on her palm, still frowning. Taking it as interest, Youmu kept speaking, “This is Hakurouken. It slashes through confusion, you see.” The maiden tilted her head, squinting an eye. “Ah... Anyways. I was practicing my spell cards, as I usually do once I complete daily weeding. I hadn’t performed Double Pain in some time, so I – “

“I hate that card,” Reimu grunted.

“...so I decided to practice it,” Youmu continued, lowering her brow. “You’ve seen the card, so you must understand how it works.” Reimu nodded. “I create a double of myself with the assistance of my ghost half.” Her hand went to the transparent ghost at her side, resting on top of it. “But when I performed Double Pain, the...” She bit her lip. It was embarrassing. “The double attacked me.”

Reimu rose her brow. “Your ghost half attacked you?”

“No, certainly not!” She shook her head quickly. “It wasn’t me. My ghost half, I mean. I can sense that sort of thing.” She patted the ghost. It couldn’t have been Myon. That didn’t make any sense – Youmu _was_ Myon. “It was something else, definitely.”

“What was it?”

“I... I don’t know, that’s why I came to you.” Reimu rolled her eyes. “Reimu, you’re the only person I trust to take this problem to... anyone else would surely tell my mistress.”

That made her sit up. “Yuyuko doesn’t know?” Youmu shook her head quickly. “What does this have to do with your sword, anyway? If it’s your ghost half that did the attacking.”

“Like I said, it wasn’t her.” Youmu patted her again, frowning. “I thought perhaps the double was confused by being brought out, for some reason. I’m the one who controls it, but perhaps having been in disuse, she was startled, or... something. So I performed my Voidness Sword attack. ‘Slash Clearing the Six Senses.’ That one is performed with Hakurouken, you see, but when I struck, there was this... bright light.”

“Bright light?”

“And then the double was gone.” Reimu sat back. Spell cards definitely didn’t behave that way, normally. She’d seen the Voidness Sword spell, spotting her use it on the Taoists not long ago. She didn’t remember there being a bright light, just a sharp slashing noise and a lot of wind. But this double not acting as Youmu wished it to – that was strange. Back during the endless parties, she’d seen the card herself, and was met with the true force of such a double. It had definitely been under Youmu’s control, no doubt about it. For it to disobey now was...

“Unprecedented,” Reimu mused. Youmu frowned, looking down at the tea cup in front of her. “I suppose I can try to seal it for a bit. Have you performed Double Pain since?” Youmu shook her head, white hair falling in front of her eyes as she looked down. “How about this: Do the spell again, and we’ll see what happens. If nothing unordinary occurs, then we can assume whatever happened isn’t in your marshmallow anymore.”

“She’s not a marshmallow,” Youmu said quickly, glaring. “But...” Her expression softened into a worried stare down to the tea. “I would very much appreciate that.”

Word got out, somehow. While Youmu had insisted that Reimu not tell Yuyuko, nearly everyone else in Gensokyo somehow heard of the tale in the hour that Youmu returned home to fetch her spell card (which, after having reacted like that, she had quickly locked away deep within her things). When she returned to the shrine, her jaw dropped at the crowd. There was the flower youkai, and the ice fairy, and the firefly youkai, and – was that the vampire’s maid? She landed on the shrine grounds a few feet from her, who watched her with her arms crossed, a bemused look on her face.

“Sakuya – Why is there such a crowd?” she asked, out of breath.

“It’s not often we hear of spell cards failing,” she replied. Youmu’s face heated up, and she turned to look for Reimu. “Breaking, well, that’s part of the game. Failing, though...”

“How did all of you find out?” She wanted to bury herself in a pile of leaves. This was humiliating.

“Bun-Bun Maru.”

The tengu. Of course. How else did gossip spread so quickly. She turned back to Sakuya to respond flatly, but was faced with a newspaper, Youmu’s photo on the front. The photo had been taken some time ago, though she wasn’t sure when... Regardless, it had her fallen on the ground, a large basket of weeds she’d pulled flipped over and dumped in front of her. She looked horrified in the photo. Her expression in person mirrored the look of dread.

_Half-Human, Half-Ghost, Half-Baked! Youmu Konpaku’s Spell Card Rips Through Her!_

“That’s not what happened at all!” She snatched the paper from the smiling maid, ripping it quickly in half. “Reimu!”

“Quit your shouting, you’re louder than the stupid Prism-whoevers.” The shrine maiden walked over to her, hand on her hip.

“Where did all these people come from?!” Reimu shrugged. “Make them leave!”

“Why? They’re all going to give donations if I fix your problem. Right?” Her eyes tilted towards Sakuya, who picked her nails innocently. “Did you get the card?”

Youmu stared at her in disdain. “Yes.”

“Great. Here, let’s get a fairy for you to practice it on.” She turned to the gathering crowd, looking for a low-level youkai.

“No need, Reimu,” Sakuya interjected, “I’d be happy to volunteer.”  

Youmu leveled her stare at the maid as Reimu nodded. The crowd clapped in anticipation. “You don’t mind, right?” She smiled at her, stepping away from the rest of the crowd. “Perhaps when you’re in the mindset of fighting a real foe, you’ll play the card with more effort.”

“We are enemies now, then?” Youmu scoffed, stepping away and gripping the hilt of Roukanken. _Don’t fail_ , she hissed at herself mentally. _Don’t fail._

A wide circle was made, consisting of fairies, youkai, and even some humans. (Was that the shrine maiden from the top of the mountain? Jeez, how fast _had_ the news travelled in that one hour...?) Youmu felt her cheeks turn red. There were so many people here – all waiting expectantly for her spell card to backfire. This had never happened before in all of Gensokyo’s history... She was the first one to have been awful enough to have one fail.

Her eyes rose to the clouds she’d come down from. If only her teacher was here. He could surely solve the problem without gathering a crowd of giggling fairies around her.

“Set spell card,” Sakuya called at her.

“I know, I know!” She faced her, taking her stance, and drew her blade. A deep breath in – and let it out. Concentrate. Keep all concentration and focus on the tip of the blade. The blade is an extension of yourself – use it as such. “Spell card,” she drew it from within her vest, “First Card – Double Pain.”

The ground around her lit up in a flash of orange light, the card disintegrating. Her ghost half quickly formed her double, the mirror of her blade copied in its hands, as the loud rumble of the spell card’s casting echoed. She heard some fairies’ gasps of _ooh_ and _ahh_. She aimed her eyes at Sakuya, who drew a knife carefully. “Pace forward,” she muttered under her breath, commanding her ghost half forward as she moved into a run, sword to her side, gathering the energy in her to prepare danmaku. It was working. She could sense Myon tagging along behind her, following her mental orders and moving to her left, sword at the ready to strike. The card’s error must have vanished, everything was –

“Deflation World!”

Knives. Youmu tilted her head as they were thrown like bullets to her left, skidding to a halt to see her ghost half. Time froze before her eyes, and when she blinked, Sakuya was pulling her back by her collar. White knives had surrounded her other half, and in an instant, shot down in an attempt to pin her to the ground. They went straight through her, of course, and her eyes turned to them both.

“C-Clearing the – Voidness Sign!!” Youmu fumbled quickly into her vest, reaching blindly for her spell cards. Sweat gathered at her brow. “Voidness...!”

“Don’t.” Sakuya stopped her. “She stopped attacking.”

She was right. The double stood perfectly still, staring at the two of them. The crowd was dead silent, watching in a mixture of awe and amusement. Her eyes were hollowed, body still transparent. That was how the double was supposed to look, but – something about it just seemed _off_.

“Speak to her.” Sakuya nudged her forward. Youmu stumbled a bit, hesitated, then straightened her back and moved closer.

“Myon?” A wary smile creased her lips. The double was silent. “Er... Are you Myon? If so – “ She halted. Within the double, she could feel her ghost half – feel _herself_ – struggling for control. There really was something else within the spell card, and whatever it was had been taking control over Myon.

Her eyes shot to Roukanken. Apparently having used that attack on it hadn’t trapped it within her sword... The attack had worked, though. It was a last resort, then, Youmu knew. Though the double had attacked her twice now, she seemed calm now. Perhaps it was simply startled. Perhaps a simple discussion would sort things out, and she could get whatever this was out of her spell card.

“Spirit Sign.” She looked to Reimu suddenly, beginning to holler for her to stop, but her voice caught in her throat. It was too late – her spell card was out, and she was facing the double head-on. “Fantasy Seal.”

Rainbow orbs attacked the double suddenly, making contact sharply. Youmu shuddered, unable to look away, but – where was Myon? Surely she would transform back if she could, but –

Reimu neared the double, holding a paper tag. With a final pop, the orbs vanished, leaving the ripped-up Youmu clone resting on one knee. She rose her head to look at Reimu, who easily placed the seal on her transparent forehead. “Seal,” she ordered curtly, and the double was sucked into the tag.

Youmu stood staring as the audience clapped and applauded, hand moving slowly to sheathe her sword. She felt cold. Colder than usual. This wasn’t right. Certainly not – where was Myon? Shouldn’t she have been spit out of the seal? Why had the damned shrine maiden acted like that, she had become nonviolent!

As if on key, Sakuya demanded, “Why did you seal it away when it was calm?” Reimu looked at her, brow low. “And Youmu’s ghost half, where is it now?”

“It must have been sucked into this.” She waved the paper tag. “Don’t worry, it can’t get out unless I allow it to.” Youmu felt Sakuya place a hand on her shoulder.  
“Are you alright?” She managed a nod. “You can function without it, then?”

“I don’t know,” she murmured. The hand moved from her shoulder to her cheek, then moved away suddenly, surprised.

“You’re like ice.” She rose her eyes to look at her. “More than usual, I mean. Reimu, remove the seal, let her ghost half free.”

“She’s alive, isn’t she?” Reimu answered with a hint of a scoff. Sakuya glared at her. “Let me take a look at it and see what I can do. _Then_ I’ll remove the seal.” Reimu looked at Youmu. “You can function without it, can’t you?”

“...I suppose I can.” She felt queasy. Like something was missing. Well, of course something was missing, but it felt like there was a gaping hole in her consciousness. “I ask you to hurry with that task.”

“I’ll do my best.” She slid the tag into her pocket, turning to the crowd of youkai. “Alright, you got your show! If you’re not gonna donate, scram! I’ve got cleaning to do.” One by one, the youkai and fairies left, mumbling their comments and smiling back at Youmu.

The first one to have an infected spell card. What a great new title. Better than half-baked, anyway.

“Can you get back to the Netherworld alright?” asked Sakuya. She nodded, sighing, looking up at the sky. The gate was a good few miles from here, but surely she could make it. “Best of luck. I’d better report back to my mistress.” She nodded again, sullenly watching her float away back towards the lake of fairies.

“Stop looking so mad, already, I did the best I could do.” She leveled a glare at Reimu, who shot one right back at her. “You’re alive, what more is there to worry about? I’ll make sure to contact you the moment I exterminate whatever else is in there.”

Youmu just stared at her for a moment. “My ghost-half is a youkai.”

“I won’t exterminate that part.”

“Swear it.”

“I just said it, I won’t exterminate that part! If I did, I’m sure everyone in Gensokyo’d hate me, and I’d _nev_ _er_ get donations.” Youmu turned, facing west. “I’ll go to the Netherworld when I get it sorted out.”

“I’ll visit daily until then.” Reimu rolled her eyes at that. Youmu ignored her, and eyes saw something flicker – oh, of course, her dead spell card. She bent down, lifting it up. It was transparent, her fingers showing on the other side through a glossy screen.

She pocketed it in her vest, frowning, and leapt to take off... and hit the ground. She paused, shocked, and tried again. And again. And again. She looked at Reimu, as if for help, but just saw her covering her wide grin with a long sleeve. “Reimu!”

“What? It’s not my fault. Your ghost half was what made you fly, really?"

“I don’t...!” She was horrified. Mortified. This wasn’t right. The mental hole sagged in her mind. “I’ll figure something out!” She turned and raced to the forest, body nearly ice but for her burning cheeks.


End file.
